Prison officers’ ‘doubts’ over Mountjoy policy

THE Prison Officers’ Association (POA) has welcomed the “zero drugs policy” of the new governor of Mountjoy Prison, but said they had “serious doubts” it had made the prison safer.

A spokesman for the association said that only last Friday a prison officer – in the job for less than two months – received 21 stitches to his face after being slashed by an inmate wielding a makeshift blade.

The spokesman said that while the new net system installed over the main yards last month were welcome, the association had called for them at least six years ago.

A senior prison source in Mountjoy told the Irish Examiner yesterday that the netting was not a panacea.

He said prison authorities needed to cut the spiralling inmate numbers, remove the drug bosses to a separate prison unit and introduce “meaningful occupation” for the 500-odd prisoners with nothing to do.

The comments came following interviews by the new governor of Mountjoy, Ned Whelan, who formally took over the job from John Lonergan six weeks ago.

Speaking on RTÉ, Mr Whelan said: “My policy as governor, as in every prison I was governor of, is to have a zero drug policy inside prison. That means stopping all avenues of drugs getting into prison.”

Part of the strategy was the erection of horizontal netting across the main exercise yard, and a second yard, at Mountjoy. At a cost of about €250,000, this, together with vertical netting put up two years ago, seals off the yards from drugs and other articles, such as phones, from being thrown in over the walls from neighbouring streets.

But a POA spokesman said: “We welcome any kind of security measures to increase the safety of our members, but recent incidents – including one member being slashed – raise serious doubts about it.

“We are always committed to zero tolerance and are quite happy to continue with it if the supports are there by management to do the job.”

A senior prison source told the Irish Examiner the netting, while welcome, should have been in years ago.

“It’s not a panacea,” he said. “Three things need to be done: reduce the numbers, take the top drug guys out into a totally separate area, and have meaningful occupation for those who remain.”